Networks at various layers are being deployed with control planes, Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), and the like. Control planes provide automatic allocation of network resources in an end-to-end manner. Exemplary control planes may include Automatically Switched Optical Network (ASON) as defined in ITU-T G.8080/Y.1304, Architecture for the automatically switched optical network (ASON) (02/2005), the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) Architecture as defined in IETF Request for Comments (RFC): 3945 (10/2004) and the like, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference; Optical Signaling and Routing Protocol (OSRP) from Ciena Corporation which is an optical signaling and routing protocol similar to PNNI (Private Network-to-Network Interface) and MPLS; or any other type control plane for controlling network elements at multiple layers, and establishing connections therebetween. Control planes are configured to establish end-to-end signaled connections to route the connections and program the underlying hardware accordingly. SDN provides the management of network services through abstraction of lower-level functionality. This is done by decoupling the system that makes decisions about where traffic is sent (the control plane) from the underlying systems that forward traffic to the selected destination (the data plane).
In control planes, SDN, and the like, network updates are flooded continually so that each node (in control planes) or an SDN controller (in SDN) have synchronized views of the network. As networks scale, the amount of updates can be difficult to process. For example, the updates can be flooded through Protocol Data Unit (PDU) packets or the like, with different types of routing PDUs for different types of updates. An exemplary routing PDU is a Link Bandwidth Update PDU to convey bandwidth updates on a link, which is typically the most frequently flooded routing PDU. Conventionally, many techniques are employed to reduce the effects of flooding PDUs in the network, including the Link Bandwidth Update PDUs. One exemplary technique includes setting bandwidth thresholds for when Link Bandwidth Updates are flooded, i.e. when the bandwidth threshold is crossed then Link Bandwidth Update PDUs are flooded. This is described, for example, in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,729,253 issued on Jun. 1, 2010 and entitled “REDUCED AVAILABLE BANDWIDTH UPDATES,” the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Another exemplary technique involves constraining links over which all Routing PDUs are flooded, i.e., manually creating Spanning Tree like paths to reach all nodes. This is described, for example, in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 8,089,866 issued on Jan. 3, 2012 and entitled “SPANNING TREE FLOODING BACKBONE SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR LINK STATE ROUTED NETWORKS,” the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Yet another technique is to ensure only a single Routing PDU of a given type (e.g., Link Bandwidth Update) is originated within a given period of time, e.g. 2s.
As networks continue to scale, more effective techniques are required to improve scalability, efficiency, and performance of routing updates and the network in general.